One Circle - Transparency

One Circle - Transparency
One Circle is a group of Italian weirdos—Vaghe Stelle, A:RA and Lorenzo Senni—and their rambling compositions sound like the work of three artists fighting for control. After an intriguing debut on Left_Blank last year, the trio return with Transparency, a five-track effort that finds them on a slightly surer footing.

Though classifying Transparency isn't easy, picking out the influences is. Senni is best known for deconstructing trance, and he comes to the fore on "Render," where overdriven chords—hand-picked from some demonic trance breakdown—glow like embers against a jagged backdrop of percussion. "Transparency" takes the same aesthetic but gestures towards the hollowed-out grime of Visionist and Fatima Al Qadiri, as wispy, high-pitched synths hover over elastic bass notes.

The group has a thing for layering unusual and sometimes-dissonant sounds, which works for and against them. On the grandiose interlude "Alpha Composing," it's fantastic, as stretchy synths wriggle over a soft piano melody. "Alien Rave," on the other hand, is a shambles of drums, clumsy bass notes and misplaced horns. There's a certain appeal in the chaos, but it's not up to snuff with the rest of the record. That discombobulated feeling emerges again on "Live In Your World Play In Ours." A few attempts to pin down the track's loose contents with a kick drum never seem to catch, but then it melts into ornate trance, a confusing but breathtaking turn that nicely embodies the disjointed appeal of One Circle.